The present invention relates, in general, to ultrasonic imaging, and, in particular, relates to an improved technique and device for storing and retrieving ultrasonic images of the type used in medical diagnostics.
Ultrasonic imaging has found increased utility in the field of medical diagnosis. For example, ultrasonic imaging is utilized extensively for the detection and diagnosis of mammarian cancer. It is also utilized to ascertain various stages of fetal development. A major problem encountered with ultrasonic imaging has been the need to find a suitable technique for storing and retrieving the vast quantities of data generated when ultrasonic imaging techniques are employed. One technique employed for storing such data is to store information on photographic film. However, a typical mammarian scan for a single patient may comprise as many as sixty pages of photographs per patient with four photographs per page. Because of the unwieldly nature of such photographic records, less than a complete set of records may be collected and maintained for a given patient. Since record selection is generally done by a technician, the technician's judgment as to which data should be collected and which discarded may be substituted for that of the physician.
To alleviate the disadvantage of unwieldy photographic records of ultrasonic imaging, digital storage of such images has been proposed. However, ultrasonic imaging generates large quantities of digital data. While digital data storage techniques are available to store large quantities of digital data, retrieving such information may be sufficiently time consuming so as to be undesirable for a busy physician. One alternative is to provide a minimum digital storage capacity and to simply collect less data. In this manner, information retrieval time may be minimized but fewer than the optimum number of records per patient may be stored. Alternatively, if many records per patient are stored, but with data density for each record reduced, the image resolution for each record may be less than optimum.
It would be desirable to provide an improved ultrasonic image data storage and retrieval technique and device which utilizes minimum digital storage capacity.
It would be still further desirable to provide such an ultrasonic image storage and retrieval device and technique which utilizes minimum storage capacity and yet which is capable of storing all imaging data which is diagnostically significant.
It would be still further desirable to provide such an ultrasonic image storage and retrieval device and technique having the capability for information retrieval in a short period of time.
It would be still further desirable to provide such a device and technique which permits the storage of more patient records in a memory of a given size without appreciable loss of resolution.